Moon’s Son Heads North, Expects to Meet Kim Jong Eun

The body of Rev. Moon Sun-myung, founder of the Unification Church, is displayed in a glass bier for mourners at the church’s complex in Gapyeong, about 60 km (37 miles) northeast of Seoul.

The link between the Unification Church and North Korea, which seemed broken after news the North wouldn’t send a delegation to the funeral of Rev. Moon Sun-myung, turned interesting again.

The church announced Friday that Mr. Moon’s successor, his youngest son Moon Hyung-jin, went to the North early in the morning with the head of the church’s Pyeonghwa Motors, which builds cars in the North.

“The purpose of the visit is related to the expression of condolences by Rev. Moon’s relatives and leaders in the North,” the church statement said.

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Since Mr. Moon’s death on Monday, there has been speculation about whether North Korea would send an official delegation to the South at some point during the week-long wake.

European Pressphoto Agency

Moon Hyung-jin, at his father’s memorial site on Thursday.

But on Thursday, Park Sang-kwon, the chief executive of the church-owned car manufacturer, arrived in the South from North Korea and said he’d been told the North’s government wouldn’t send an official delegation.

Mr. Moon was born in a village north of Pyongyang in 1920 and lived there for most of his life until the Korean War. He was jailed for his religious activities before the start of the war and was freed by South Korean and U.S. troops.

In 1991, he visited the North’s founder and long-time leader Kim Il Sung. When Mr. Kim died, Mr. Moon sent a funeral delegation to Pyongyang. He did so again after the death of Kim Jong Il last year.

In its statement Friday, the church said that a memorial site for Mr. Moon had been set up in Pyongyang and that it expected some of his relatives and leaders of North Korea to visit it.

The church statememt said “it is assumed” North Korea’s current dictator, Kim Jong Eun, grandson of Kim Il Sung and son of Kim Jong Il, will be among the mourners at the site in Pyongyang.